Groundwater rejuvenation in parts of India influenced by water-policy change implementation

The dwindling groundwater resource of India, supporting almost one fifth of the global population and also the largest groundwater user, has been of great concern in recent years. However, in contrary to the well documented Indian groundwater depletion due to rapid and unmanaged groundwater withdraw...

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Main Authors: Bhanja, S., Mukherjee, Abhijit, Rodell, M., Wada, Y., Chattopadhyay, S., Velicogna, I., Pangaluru, K., Famiglietti, J.
Format: Journal Article
Published: Nature Publishing Group 2017
Online Access:http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/66828
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author Bhanja, S.
Mukherjee, Abhijit
Rodell, M.
Wada, Y.
Chattopadhyay, S.
Velicogna, I.
Pangaluru, K.
Famiglietti, J.
author_facet Bhanja, S.
Mukherjee, Abhijit
Rodell, M.
Wada, Y.
Chattopadhyay, S.
Velicogna, I.
Pangaluru, K.
Famiglietti, J.
author_sort Bhanja, S.
building Curtin Institutional Repository
collection Online Access
description The dwindling groundwater resource of India, supporting almost one fifth of the global population and also the largest groundwater user, has been of great concern in recent years. However, in contrary to the well documented Indian groundwater depletion due to rapid and unmanaged groundwater withdrawal, here for the first time, we report regional-scale groundwater storage (GWS) replenishment through long-term (1996-2014, using more than 19000 observation locations) in situ and decadal (2003-2014) satellite-based groundwater storage measurements in western and southern parts of India. In parts of western and southern India, in situ GWS (GWS obs ) has been decreasing at the rate of -5.81 ± 0.38 km 3 /year (in 1996-2001) and -0.92 ± 0.12 km 3 /year (in 1996-2002), and reversed to replenish at the rate of 2.04 ± 0.20 km 3 /year (in 2002-2014) and 0.76 ± 0.08 km 3 /year (in 2003-2014), respectively. Here, using statistical analyses and simulation results of groundwater management policy change effect on groundwater storage in western and southern India, we show that paradigm shift in Indian groundwater withdrawal and management policies for sustainable water utilization appear to have started replenishing the aquifers in western and southern parts of India.
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spelling curtin-20.500.11937-668282018-07-13T06:40:20Z Groundwater rejuvenation in parts of India influenced by water-policy change implementation Bhanja, S. Mukherjee, Abhijit Rodell, M. Wada, Y. Chattopadhyay, S. Velicogna, I. Pangaluru, K. Famiglietti, J. The dwindling groundwater resource of India, supporting almost one fifth of the global population and also the largest groundwater user, has been of great concern in recent years. However, in contrary to the well documented Indian groundwater depletion due to rapid and unmanaged groundwater withdrawal, here for the first time, we report regional-scale groundwater storage (GWS) replenishment through long-term (1996-2014, using more than 19000 observation locations) in situ and decadal (2003-2014) satellite-based groundwater storage measurements in western and southern parts of India. In parts of western and southern India, in situ GWS (GWS obs ) has been decreasing at the rate of -5.81 ± 0.38 km 3 /year (in 1996-2001) and -0.92 ± 0.12 km 3 /year (in 1996-2002), and reversed to replenish at the rate of 2.04 ± 0.20 km 3 /year (in 2002-2014) and 0.76 ± 0.08 km 3 /year (in 2003-2014), respectively. Here, using statistical analyses and simulation results of groundwater management policy change effect on groundwater storage in western and southern India, we show that paradigm shift in Indian groundwater withdrawal and management policies for sustainable water utilization appear to have started replenishing the aquifers in western and southern parts of India. 2017 Journal Article http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/66828 10.1038/s41598-017-07058-2 http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ Nature Publishing Group fulltext
spellingShingle Bhanja, S.
Mukherjee, Abhijit
Rodell, M.
Wada, Y.
Chattopadhyay, S.
Velicogna, I.
Pangaluru, K.
Famiglietti, J.
Groundwater rejuvenation in parts of India influenced by water-policy change implementation
title Groundwater rejuvenation in parts of India influenced by water-policy change implementation
title_full Groundwater rejuvenation in parts of India influenced by water-policy change implementation
title_fullStr Groundwater rejuvenation in parts of India influenced by water-policy change implementation
title_full_unstemmed Groundwater rejuvenation in parts of India influenced by water-policy change implementation
title_short Groundwater rejuvenation in parts of India influenced by water-policy change implementation
title_sort groundwater rejuvenation in parts of india influenced by water-policy change implementation
url http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11937/66828